Sumeet Kalsey

10 Substitutes to PayPal

PayPal is a convenient way to pay and accept payment online. Many online merchants use the service to get payment along with credit cards or debit cards from major companies such as Visa and Mastercard. Merchants and online buyers aren’t the only ones who take advantage of PayPal’s services. There are so many freelance workers who rely on PayPal to get paid for rendered services. PayPal makes our life so simple when it comes to paying for goods and services online. Despite how useful it is, some have been frustrated with the quality of the service they get from PayPal. There’s even a group that has created a dedicated website to gripe about PayPal.

This service lets you send money to friends and family. Amazon’s service offers a simple way to send money as you can easily pay on thousands of websites by using the information stored in your Amazon account so there’s no need to input your credit card or type in your address. Online sellers are charged 2.9% +$ .3 per-transaction for transactions greater than $ 10.

With this service from Google, you can send money to your friend in the U.S. as well as spend the money on your account on stores. It also has an added service that it lets you leave your loyalty programs and cards behind as it can store it for you.

This service bills itself as “Hassle-Free Payment Processing.” Like PayPal, their service is compatible with Ebay. Merchants can use the service to accept credit cards on their website and even send invoices to their customers. Merchant Inc.’s standard rate for transactions is 1.99%. Merchant Inc. also promises sellers that they can receive payments in as little as two days.

Merchants can get a device from Square that they can use to swipe the credit card of their customer. The device can be used on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. While the device can be used by brick-and-mortar businesses, Square also has a service that allows online merchants to accept payment. Square’s rate is 2.75% for every transaction.

Want to pay bills online just like you do with PayPal? American Express’ Serve service lets you get a temporary card at retailers such as Office Depot, Walgreens, and CVS/pharmacy. You can add funds to the card for free at participating CVS/Pharmacy and 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. With Serve, you can also send and receive money from friends and family who also have a Serve account.

This company’s mission is to allow anyone to quickly and safely move money online at the lowest cost possible. And they do have one of the lowest rates around at just $ 0.25 per transaction or free for transactions that are less than $ 10. Users can send money to an email address or phone numbers, the recipient needs to open a Dwolla account to claim the funds. Dwolla also has a mobile app.

Like Square, ProPay also provides a dongle that attaches to your iOS and Android device that lets merchants accept credit card payments. ProPay also offers other devices that let merchants accept credit cards. Their rate for swiping a card is 2.6% while their keyed rate is 3.4%.

This service is already available in 196 countries around the world and they can process 26 currencies. As for their rates, it’s a bit on the steep side as their transaction rate is 5.5% and they charge another 45 cents per transaction.

Just like Paypal, Xoom can be used to send payment to friends and family. Freelance workers can also use this service to get paid by their employers. It’s geared more towards those who want to send remittances.

This is an emerging form of currency and merchants can use Bitcoins as a form of payment and even avoid transaction fees. The challenge is that not a lot of people use this and several major exchanges have closed recently so it makes it a little hard to exchange your Bitcoins to cash.

For those who are frustrated with the service they get from PayPal or who just want another payment processor, they can check out these PayPal alternatives. Some providers offer much cheaper transaction rates compared to PayPal so that could be a reason to switch providers even if you are satisfied with PayPal’s service.Image Credit: sscreations